CASE Studies

Freefoam Building Products is a company that takes employee welfare very seriously, which is why they called upon the services of Euro Environmental five years ago.

The company based in Northampton is a manufacturer of uPVC Fascia’s, guttering systems, cladding, soffits and other building products for housebuilders and homeowners right across Europe and as part of the manufacturing process they work with a range of potentially hazardous compounds and chemicals.

Euro Environmental has now been working with the Freefoam Building Products team since October 2013 and during that time has embarked on annual assessments of the company’s manufacturing departments. These assessments ensure the company stays compliant with all occupational health and safety regulations, relevant to its industry.

Work Activity

The processes employed in Freefoams operations includes the use of potentially hazardous materials for which they need to ensure that Occupational Exposure Limits (OEL’s) are minimised and kept within the legislative limits. This also includes noise and airborne dust and vapour exposure.

Euro Environmental was appointed to complete annual air sampling and noise assessments which involved looking at legal workplace exposure limits for the workforce that are strictly stipulated by the Health and Safety Executive.

The air monitoring projects involve the collection of appropriate samples from the working environment and aims to assess the workforce’s personal exposure during their day to day activities.

The subsequent results obtained from the laboratory testing phase are then used to prepare an occupational exposure report that is compared to the legal limits and any recommendations are made.

The noise survey work involves the measurement of noise levels within the workplace through a combination of personal dose sampling and background measurements. These measurements are then compared to the control of noise at work regulations (CNAWR 2015) and any recommendations are made.

Result

Euro Environmental ensures that Freefoam Building Products stays compliant with all occupational health and safety limits in the workplace.

Conducting annual assessments taking no longer than one working day ensures there is no disruption to the businesses manufacturing processes or down time for employees whilst keeping them all safe in their job roles on site.

Euro Environmental provides Freefoam with a report after every assessment clearly documenting the areas that have been tested and the findings.

Geoff Barnett, Technical Operations Manager of Freefoam said: “We have been working with Euro Environmental since 2013 and during that time they have always given us the assessments required to keep Freefoam compliant with all relevant occupational health and safety regulations.

“We are given reports every time Euro Environmental visit our manufacturing site and they are always very thorough and concise - which is clearly the result of an experienced service partner.

“The office staff are always courteous and responsive, and the on-site teams are punctual and efficient. I would recommend Euro Environmental to any other manufacturing-based company as they are experts in quality inspections, analysis and occupational health and safety consultations.”

Chris Senior, Director of Euro Environmental said: “Over the past five years, we have worked across a number of workplace exposure projects for Freefoam and since then have built a fantastic professional relationship – one that we look forward to continuing.”